


Castiel's (Not So) Greatest Hits

by kaianieves



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Meta, non-fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 05:15:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17892179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaianieves/pseuds/kaianieves
Summary: Some non-fiction meta on Castiel I did a while back, crossposted from Tumblr of course. Originally published January 3, 2019.





	Castiel's (Not So) Greatest Hits

I’m writing this down now, so I don’t get carried away like I usually do when I try to write meta. This is to examine the correlation between Castiel’s actions throughout the series, actions he later expressed or showed remorse and/or regret for; his character development and him becoming more “human” and adjusting to the whole free will thing with good decisions.

Alright- so, we all have regrets. We all make mistakes. Ours aren’t say, en masse Heaven-falling mistakes like Castiel’s, but humour me in saying they’re similar.

With Cas, there’s a lot of trial and error- deadly trial and error, but trial and error nonetheless. Just watching his character development, even within two or three seasons, is absolutely fascinating. Because season four Castiel isn’t season six Castiel, or even really season five Castiel. I’ve made a list of episodes featuring Cas’ (not so) greatest hits, and I want to look at his viewpoint regarding those decisions during and afterwards.

We’ll start with 4x20 “The Rapture”, and the Novak family. We know what happened to the Novaks is one of Castiel’s “greatest regrets” (14x02), but at the time, Castiel was very indifferent to what happened to Jimmy and his family. He took possession of Claire, not caring that she was a little girl who would evidently experience much pain, just as Jimmy had. Castiel only cared that she was a vessel that could host him. Now, present Castiel would be horrified at these actions if performed today, and he regrets that he did it in the past. He regrets what happened to Jimmy, how it changed Claire’s life forever and how it displaced and then killed Amelia.

Next, 6x20 “The Man Who Would Be King”, and all of season six, really. Castiel worked with the wrong guy for the “right” reasons, and it ended badly for everyone. He wanted to leave Dean to the life he thought Dean wanted, and didn’t want to disturb him to have to save the world again. Again struggling with his free will, and doing the wrong thing for what he thought were the right reasons. Taking possession of Clair to be able to serve Heaven on Earth, working with Crowley instead to leave Dean to be happy.

Then we have the fallout of his season six actions and his further struggle with free will. Cas has the ability to do what he wants along with the supposed power equivalent to God, so Castiel decides to kill hypocrites and charlatans who preach in the name of and say they represent God (him for the moment.) Castiel thought taking on the Leviathan souls would help him save Heaven. Then after Raphael was dead and no longer a threat, he thought he would make Earth a better place, while also stating “God’s” actual opinion/whatever you’d like to call it (“I am utterly indifferent to sexual orientation,” for example.)

But again, this was a fault in his hyped up judgement, and Castiel’s learning experience (DON’T take on thousands of evil creature souls from Purgatory, Timmy) cost several lives, and put the world in danger (which is exactly what he was trying not to do.) Cas also expresses great regret for also killing many of his fellow angels, and let’s not forget him taking down Sam’s mental wall.

Castiel tries to atone for that last one by taking on Sam’s pain. He’s lost everything, and that he feels like an abomination of an angel (*cough* hey remember when he called Sam an abomination *cough* full circle, huh?) He almost feels like an evil figure, I would say. But Cas isn’t evil, and feelings aside, deep down he knows that; or at least he knows he wants to be good, he just keeps making these (deadly) mistakes. So if he could lock up Heaven before they caused any more trouble on Earth, even at the cost of himself? It was Yogi Bear’s picnic basket, and of course he took it. But Metatron tricked him, and it wasn’t filled with lovely PB and J’s but lots more eventually dead angels, and a war between the remaining ones.

Now, Jeremy Carver spends a lot of time on Dean for the next two seasons, so this list gets a bit of a break, until 11x10 “The Devil in The Details”. Here, Cas is desperate. More desperate than he was in season eight, I think; because in seasons nine and ten he had some growth, and this time it’s not just about redeeming himself. It’s about saving the world, so it isn’t swallowed up by and do that thing Metatron did in 11x21. Sam refuses to host Lucifer, but Cas still thinks he can help them. So he lets the Devil in, in a very knee jerk, desperate decision that reminds me of Dean’s desperation with the Sam being possessed by Gadreel and Mark of Cain situations.

Now Castiel can manage his free will much better, resulting in less world-ending tragedies,  He doesn’t make these rash, almost ultimatum decisions too often anymore. I’m not counting what happened in 14x08, simply because Castiel doesn’t regret what he did and it won’t theoretically result in any world ending tragedies, except for maybe the Winchesters personally. But Castiel can see the Bigger Picture and potential results of his decisions beforehand, drawing on knowledge from past experiences. Because he can do that, s14 Cas makes better decisions than s6 Cas. He feels less like a tool useful to Sam and Dean, more like family (which was the heart of Cas’ decision making in s6) and that’s important. It’s positive growth.

Watching Castiel over the seasons is like watching a child grow up. Or really, watching a person grow through life and the choices they make, no matter the age.


End file.
